Sarutobi no Jinchuuriki Removed Chapters
by Simplice
Summary: These are two chapters that were originally Chapters 25 and 26 of my Sarutobi no Jinchuuriki story. Unfortunately, they led to me having writers block as FemNaru (Kaiyou) didn't seem to fit with these. As such, in order to finish my story-I had to re-do these. But, for all the Itachi fans out there...I put them here instead! Link to original story inside.
1. Teasing and Confrontations

Author's Note: These two chapters are originally from my story Sarutobi no Jinchuuriki. You can't really read them without the rest of the story. As such, here is the link. Please note that these are chapters 25 and 26 of the original story (new chapters in their place). Add this after the website name to get to the story: /s/4333644/26/Sarutobi-no-Jinchuuriki

I don't own Naruto. If I did...well, I got so annoyed I stopped reading the manga. So if I wrote it..it wouldn't have gone that way!

XxOOxX

Gaara nodded his head at Kaiyou, who managed to look serious for a moment, before launching herself at him. The jinchuuriki of the Ichibi looked surprised, then wrapped his arms around his friend in a hug. He patted her back awkwardly for a moment, until she pulled back, with a weepy grin. The members of Team 7 and Team Gai exchanged funny looks.

The Kazekage was not quite sure why his friend was so upset, but he'd heard that women tended to be emotional, so he didn't think too much of it. Temari certainly had been weepy upon his return. Kaiyou grinned up at him with that odd look in her eyes, "Don't go getting kidnapped again," she said with a teasing voice.

Gaara blinked his eyes—still ringed in black—at the girl. "I do not think I would like to repeat that experience," he said solemnly. She gave him a look with her brows raised; "Nor will I die again." Kaiyou gave a satisfied nod, and allowed herself to be pushed back to her team, and away from the country.

As she turned her back on her friend and bounced out of Suna's gates, a short blonde figure between the dark Sasuke, and the solid and white-garbed Shino. Raising his hand the Kazekage waved at his friend: so, too, did the sand of the deserts raise and twirl in a friendly manner behind his back, forming a vague outline of a hand. Gaara felt a trill of excitement as he discovered that the sand still responded to his will.

Maybe if he added some chakra…. Gaara wandered away from the gate before his friends were out of sight, wondering if he might be able to mimic his old Shukaku-given defenses. For though he would always be a jinchuuriki, never again would a demon dwell inside his body.

XxOOxX

Kaiyou was completely distracted and enthralled with to things. As a ninja she was always somewhat conscious of her surroundings, surveying the area for attacks, if she wasn't on her home turf. The other thing, was equally automatic, though less common. Kakashi was getting on her nerves.

Kakashi had managed to encourage Gai and his team to race ahead—all while maintaining his hip attitude. Gai had, of course, had an eager participant in Lee. Neji and TenTen had been far less enthusiastic. Kaiyou hadn't minded losing the companionship of TenTen or Lee very much—they weren't among her close friends, and while she enjoyed spending time with Lee—Lee and Gai at once was far too much for any person to remain sane in company with.

She was now regretting not having an ally in Lee. Sasuke and Shino would occasionally pitch in, assisting Kakashi—Sakura was outright helping him. Apparently the foursome had some questions about her time away, and about her relationship with Gaara.

She wasn't quite sure what they were so upset about. He was one of her best friends. Why shouldn't she hug him?

"…my imotou-chan have a crush?"

"Really, Namikaze, the Kazekage? I guess you found somebody better to set your sights on than Sasuke and Shikamaru."

"Sensei, your—ahem—literature seems to have corrupted Kaiyou. I would suggest that she doesn't even realize such behaviors are inppropriate for a woman of her stature."

"Shino, were you implying that I'm short," Kaiyou growled out.

"Yes, dobe, I hope the Kazekage doesn't dump you over your stature…"

"Ah yes, poor Kazekage-sama. A taller woman would be nice so he could bend his head down to her br—"

"Nii-san, finish that statement and I'll kill you," Kaiyou howled out.

Sakura, too, turned glaring eyes upon the scarecrow. He turned his head away innocently, flipped open his porn, and pretended like he hadn't been involved in the conversation at all. "Anyways, when did you start to go out with him? You're supposed to share all of these details…"

Shino and Sasuke shared a look. _Girls. Why do they want to share the details?_ Sasuke, however, was amused to see somebody other than himself being harassed by Sakura. (Tsunade had punched most of her fangirl tendencies out of her, but Sasuke still held a grudge. He also still hadn't quite gotten over his…nickname.)

"Didn't Nii-san say you were going to visit Gaara about six months ago?"

Sakura immediately swiveled her head more securely onto Kaiyou. "Six months huh? Wow, some anniversary…and what's this about Itachi-san? You know him well?"

Shino's eyes glinted evilly, hidden by his wonderful shades. "He was visiting every two months. Perhaps he had some reason to visit?"

Sakura seemed to latch onto that, her eyes glinting brightly. Kakashi too, looked up from his pornography for a moment, his sole eye glinting with curiosity. He'd have to watch…. Sasuke, on the other hand, froze for a moment, as a thoughtful scowl slid onto his face.

Kaiyou, absolutely sick of hearing speculations of her love life—which were all WRONG!—finally broke in before Sakura could get out of her old fangirl fantasies. "THAT'S IT! I'M NOT DATING ANYBODY! ITACHI-SAN DOESN'T EVEN TALK TO ME LATELY! SO YOU, PINKIE, GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE CLOUDS. SHINO STOP SAYING THINGS TO ENCOURAGE HER. AND UKE…QUIT BEING SUCH A TEME!"

The others just stared at her. But Kaiyou wasn't done yet. "Quit fussing over me! Why don't we focus on Sasuke's hickey. Or the fact that he's wearing clothes just designed to make his fangirls jump him!"

Kakashi could only snicker. Was it him or Jiraiya who had managed to bring their dear Kaiyou to the dark side?

Sasuke's face paled, and he muttered, grabbing Kaiyou by the collar and dragging here away, where Sakura wouldn't hear him.

"Hn. Make the girls pass out. And…Kakashi-sensei sent a message to your dad."

Kaiyou brightened, glad to be having a conversation that didn't revolve around her. "Oh! Daddy's going to seal it? Good! Then you won't have to worry about it breaking," she said rubbing her belly.

Sasuke found his eyes following her hand, then he looked abruptly away as her rubbing pulled her green jacket up an inch.

"But really. There has to be a better way to get rid of fangirls than dressing like an uke."

Sasuke slugged her in the head.

XxOOxX

The rest of the trip had been fairly smooth, for the most part. At dinner one night they'd discovered that Kaiyou's right arm wasn't able to tell the difference between hot and cold. She'd reached out and grabbed a pot of hot water—for her ramen—off of the fire and blistered a finger that had brushed against the pot instead of the handle without even registering the heat.

Sasuke hadn't been allowed to train since he was given the cursed seal, in anything requiring chakra.

Yet despite these facts, there had been relatively little fighting among Team 7. Everybody had been in a good mood: Sakura hadn't tried to ask Sasuke out (apparently it had occurred to her that being clingy annoyed him). Thus, despite his inactivity Sasuke was relaxed, and Shino was there to chat with him quietly. Kaiyou, cheery as always, just said that Tsunade would be able to fix her arm up in a jiffy.

With an easy atmosphere, but traveling at a swift speed, they made it back to Konoha. Reporting to the Hokage's office, Minato grinned happily at having his daughter and her team back, before settling down to business. "Team 7, Haruno Sakura. I have already received preliminary reports. Report back tomorrow with the details. In the meantime, Kaiyou, honey, please go visit the hospital. Kakashi, Sasuke, would you please accompany me? I've prepared the sealing ritual for you."

The Fourth Hokage waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. Shino and Sakura filed out first, Kaiyou waving at her dad and informing him that she wanted to go to Ichiraku's for dinner. She then hurried out of the room, eager to see the old hag. Kaiyou hadn't seen Tsunade since the night she'd tricked the old hag into taking on her friends as stu—

_Oh shoot! What if she's angry…eh…oh well. It's been 3 years! She can't hold a grudge forever. And it's not as if she'll refuse to heal me…right? Oh hehehhe! I'll just tell her it's only fair, since I kept the pervert from running rampant! Well, for the most part. His spy missions, or when Itachi-san was with me, I didn't…but no Icha Icha for 3 whole years!_

_Oh gosh…note to self: never tell Kakashi that. _

As she had predicted, her activities kept Tsunade from being too angry at her. Plus she seemed to be pleased with Hinata and Sakura as students. Hinata had great potential in surgeries, with her Byakugan, and her healing creams were very useful. Sakura, overall, had more potential as a first-class field medic, however as her poisons and fighting had also benefited from Tsunade's training.

Tsunade, however, could not fix her arm much more quickly than her body was already doing so. Kaiyou's body, with the chakra from the Kyuubi, naturally healed itself from major injuries. Tsunade, looking at the injury, seemed almost shocked at the amount of damage Kaiyous' Rasenshuriken had done to herself.

Every bone in her arm had broken, the nerves, arteries and veins had all been damaged. The bones had been healed, and the arteries and veins healed very quickly. If Kaiyou's body had not healed itself so quickly, the Rasenshuriken would have been a suicidal move. The nerves would just take time to heal.

Tsunade did a little bit of her magic, encouraging them to heal more quickly, and better so that there would be no permanent damage, but she could not heal them completely. Before she let the girl go, however, Tsunade made the girl promise not to use the jutsu except in absolute necessity.

Even with her supernatural healing abilities, the nerves could onto take so much damage. There was no replacing nerves that were damaged. And there was no guarentee that the nerves would heal as well a second time. For so many people nerve damage was permanent, no matter was medicine could be provided.

Kaiyou went home that night, cheered for her ramen, but otherwise relatively quiet. The most powerful jutsu she had ever created, was also something only she would ever be able to do. Unless there was some clan in a far away country that had a healing kekkai genkai?

XxOOxX

The sealing process, much to Sasuke's disappointment, was incredibly painful. He'd been the tough Uchiha male, and refused painkillers or something to bite into, however. For a moment his vision had gone black, with bright lights shining into his eyes painfully.

Slowly his world had come back into his brilliant colors—the Hokage's hair, Sensei's book, and the more common background colors. Kakashi had hauled him to his feet.

With a mildly curious look on his face, Minato had looked at the Uchiha boy. "Weak legs, boy?" For some reason, Sasuke felt like he wasn't measuring up. He was a jounin, not some little boy! He forced his legs to hold his weight. A chuckle met his ears. "Ah well, most would have passed out. Sakura is probably waiting to take you home. Oh, and don't use chakra until at least tomorrow," Minato added.

If Sasuke cringed at the thought of Sakura helping him home (regardless of the fact that she had been left in charge of his unconscious body days before, when he originally received the cursed seal) neither Minato or Kakashi acknowledged it.

Making his way outside of the room that he had been led to, as the two older men began to converse about sealing techniques, or something that Sasuke wasn't interested in very much, he felt himself being drawn into thought.

He'd been told that this seal was stronger than what Kakashi would have performed—which is why he had waited for Hokage-sama to perform the seal. There was no chance of this seal breaking. For some reason, Sasuke almost felt a little bit of loss at that fact: there had been such a thrill of power, a rush, an exhilaration when he had first woken from being cursed.

Sasuke had just determined that he would attain that power on his own—no snake pervert would help him—when he saw his brother standing at the reception desk on the basement floor of the tower. His brothers face waved before his eyes as he descended down the stairs to meet his brother.

Itachi looked up: "Otouto. Mission okay?"

His foot reaching the ground floor, the world spun around Sasuke, and he stumbled. "Ugh. Un. Yeah. Later. Questions for you too," he muttered out. His hand went up to his newly sealed curse mark.

Itachi's discerning eyes noticed the swaying movements, and the movements of his little brothers hand. Gently he caught his brother's elbow, helping to support him, and at the same time managing to pull Sasuke's hand from his neck. His eyes saw the mark, and widened.

"I'll deal with Mom. We'll talk after you've slept," Itachi said, taking control of the situation.

His little brother, who had managed to be stoic in front of Namikaze, was nearly unconscious.

XxOOxX

Mornings in the Uchiha household were typically very quiet. Though they were ninjas, neither Sasuke nor Itachi were in the best mood in the morning, so they became even more quiet. The matriarch of their little family normally chatted away and only occasionally demanded an answer from her less than loquacious boys.

This morning, however, did not fit the norm. Sasuke, wanting information from his brother and being actually sent to bed last night, got up earlier than he needed to in order to see the Hokage. Oddly enough, no time had actually been set, but if he knew Kakashi, he should just meet at the standard place two hours later than the meeting time was always articulated as. That meant, if he wanted to speak with Itachi, and evade his mothers questions by grabbing breakfast on the run (still going to take ten minutes, because she wouldn't accept his ruse so easily) he needed to get up early.

The ditching of mothers' questions was a standard part of his morning routine after a mission. Sasuke loved his mother and all, but he didn't enjoy having to explain every detail. And his mother had an eye for noticing his mistakes—even when he recounted the battles later! He was a jounin—but he was still under his mother's thumb. For Sasuke, ditching his mother was absolutely essential.

Knowing this about his little brother, (he too, tended to avoid their mother after missions) Itachi wasn't surprised when the presence of his little brother's chakra signature, and footsteps on the floorboards, roused him from bed. By the time Sasuke knocked at the door, Itachi already had clean pants on, and was in the process of sliding one of his black shirts, with protective chain links in the torso, over his head.

Neither was he surprised when Sasuke did not wait for his answering call, or when he stepped into the room and shut the door, even as Itachi's shirt slid over his pale chest. Sasuke simply walked over to the sole chair in the room and took a seat.

After a moment, as he grabbed an elastic to tie his hair up in, Itachi turned and looked over at his brother. "How was the mission?" Itachi deftly raised his hands up, finger-combed his black hair down into a smooth handful, and slipped the elastic around, holding his hair into a low ponytail.

Sasuke grimaced. "A success in the end. _Sakura_ proved useful. The Kazekage's younger brother had been poisoned. She created an antidote, one for him and some for the battle. We were delayed from reaching our destination by a clone of Orochimaru."

Itachi raised his eyebrows. Much of Konoha tried to forget the fact that one of the Sannin had betrayed Konoha, by performing illegal experiments on children. Namikaze-sama had not taken well to that, but Orochimaru had somehow been tipped off and escaped. "I presume he…" Itachi pointed to Sasuke's neck.

Sasuke nodded. "We figured out it was a fake, and allowed ourselves not to take the threat seriously. Unfortunately, the fake still had Orochimaru's skills, just not his chakra levels. Next I was aware Sakura was fighting Sasori of the Red Sands. I helped finish that battle: Shino had already been injured."

Sasuke continued on to report of Gaara's resurrection, and Kaiyou defeating Deidara of the Rock, in a factual manner. He didn't give any extra details. In fact he barely mentioned Kaiyou at all, watching his brother for a reaction.

Itachi, being an Uchiha, barely gave any reactions at all on his face. But the eyes were telling, and Sasuke could see a vague impatience flash through Itachi's eyes when he mentioned Kaiyou's victory.

_So Nii-san is curious...maybe Shino was right. _Sasuke decided to bait his brother.

"While she was traveling did Kaiyou meet up with Gaara, do you know?"

Itachi shook his head. "Avoided the hidden villages." Sasuke shrugged. "Huh, she seemed pretty close with Gaara. Cried over him, and gave him a hug."

For a moment, Itachi's shoulders stiffened, and Sasuke could feel a tiny amount of anger seeping from his brother. A smirk slid over his face, and as it did so, Itachi turned his back toward his brother. For an Uchiha his actions had said a lot.

Sasuke, however, knowing his brother was still at a higher level than he, didn't push the matter too far. He would just file the information away. "She seemed to think you were avoiding her."

Itachi ignored that comment and let his brother leave the room unscathed, his mind filled with old unsettled thoughts. After a moment he grabbed a weapons pouch, his wallet, and his ANBU cloak and mask. As he arrived downstairs his little brother was complaining that he needed to go, he and his team had to report in to the Hokage.

XxOOxX

All of her teammates were cleared for training, which was where they were headed after their meeting with her dad. But noo, her father and Kakashi had strictly ordered her NOT to do any chakra manipulation involving her hands, and no taijutsu. That left sneaking around and chakra control exercises.

It was on her way home that she sensed a familiar presence hiding in the shadows. For a bit she tried to ignore him: he was probably just on duty, and it was never a good idea to bother an ANBU on duty. There probably weren't a lot of gen—chuunin, who could tell when there was an ANBU about, but Kaiyou had grown up around them, and her father, and ero-sannin.

Kaiyou had learned to feel when one of them were about. And hey, if she couldn't feel one, that didn't mean they weren't about. Inside of Konoha, there was always an ANBU wandering around. It took somebody with a great deal of skill to avoid their notice. She didn't think that she was quite there yet…

After a few minutes of her walking toward her home, she realized that the ANBU was following her. _Dad didn't order him to watch me, did he? Cuz if he did…_

It was as she was walking past a thin passage between two stores, that the ANBU caught up to her, and pulled her into the narrow alley. Within a moment the two were far enough into the shadows to be hidden from sight. Kaiyou abandoned any thoughts of her father ordering her to be followed. This man wasn't, at this moment, trying to protect her.

The shadows obscured the details on the mask, but Kaiyou didn't need those to know who was addressing her. "Gaara. Tell me about him."

Kaiyou scowled, and leaned against the building behind her. "Why do you care? The past six months you've barely talked to me. You give a briefing and—"

"Are you…seeing him?" He put his arm out, blocking her exit, demanding an answer.

Kaiyou's temper flared. "And so what if I am, Itachi? Huh? It's my business!" Said man reached his left arm up, and removed his mask. His face was perhaps slightly more serious than it normally was, but it was hard to tell in the shadows. "Are you," he asked again, more softly.

Kaiyou didn't even seem to notice his question. "Geesh! Why is everybody asking me that lately! What, I bet you got it from the Uke, eh?" The girl was glaring into his eyes now, irate. They were just friends! Couldn't people accept that? Well, I told him 'no' then, and it's still-"

Itachi felt relief blossom in his heart for a moment, and his body acted before his mind did (a common ailment for shinobi). His arm, moved from blocking the girls exit, to wrapping around her waist. Tilting his head down he caught her lips, situated in that angry face turned up to his half a foot above hers, and kissed her.

For Itachi time froze.

_Flashback to six months before_

Kaiyou was excited to be returning to Konoha soon. He could see it in her face, and in her voice, as she talked about getting to see all of her friends. Itachi felt happy for her too. Being on the road alone with a perverted man for so long, couldn't be that much fun.

Jiraiya had left Kaiyou to his care for the night, claiming he had a contact in town. As soon as he'd left, Kaiyou had started giggling. Itachi had looked at her, waiting for an explanation. "He met with his contact last week! No, I do recall seeing a bar with a woman working the counter, who he'd …." Kaiyou just grinned.

Jiraiya had abandoned them to chase after a woman. Itachi wasn't quite sure that he approved. Kaiyou was still a young girl, one who was wanted by an evil organization. Should her guardian really leave her alone?

Nevertheless Jiraiya had, and Itachi knew that the risk of attack was very low. As was his routine he camped out with Kaiyou that night. It was easier to return to Konoha in the morning, and it gave the girl some time to write letters.

There was one difference this time, though, in his trip. His dreams. When he fell asleep he dreamed of Kaiyou.

_A hand shook his shoulder, and woke up, blinking bleary eyes. A face formed before his eyes—six whisker marks on rosy cheeks, tan skin, and big blue eyes, framed by shoulder length blonde and red hair. _

_His eyes moved away from her face to look at the rest of her: barefoot, wearing black shorts and a white thin-strapped tank top, clinging to her body.. Itachi drew his eyes back to her face. She was biting her lips, her soft pink lips. _

_His hand reached up from where he now sat, and slid along her scalp. The girl closed her eyes, and lowered herself to her knees. A moment later her warm lips were captured by his mouth, and Kaiyou was moving closer to him. _

_And then she was lying where she had woken him from. A burning sensation filled his body, as her sweet mouth touched his over and over and over. Her skin was soft under his hands, and she had never looked more beautiful than now as she looked up at him. _

_Bending down to kiss her again, she smiled as he whispered, "My love," to her-_

Itachi had woken up then, his face flushed, and pulses pounding throughout his body. Four feet from him, Kaiyou lay under her blanket, a strand of blonde hair framing her face, the red mixed into her hair glinting by the dying embers of the fire. Looking at her, at the girl who had invaded his dream, he felt his body betray him further.

Assured she was asleep, Itachi got him, holding his blanket in front of him, and left for the river. There had to be one around here—near to a river bank, on high ground, was the best place to make a camp. Finding one, he quickly jumped into the water, clothes and all. Standing there, letting the water cool his body, and his fevered mind, he slowly came to a conclusion.

Kaiyou was off-limits. He an ANBU, an assassin, did not deserve this beautiful girl. Her father…her father might see his affection for her as betrayal. Itachi vowed to himself he would not allow himself close to the girl.

Itachi had left before Kaiyou woke.

_Flashback over_

Itachi yanked his lips away from the girl, releasing her from his arms. He had betrayed his vow, not once but twice that day. He had gotten close to her pretending to be on duty, and then he had kissed her. He refused himself the right to contemplate how soft, how warm she had been in his arms.

Itachi mumbled at her, "Sorry. I shouldn't have…a killer…doesn't deserve you…" and left.

Her eyes wide, Kaiyou fell to her knees. Inside of her heart a war was going on, and she could not call out for him to wait. Despair quickly won out, and closed around her. Only as his lips had touched hers had she realized that she loved him, that she loved her friend. But he had also apologized for kissing her, and she didn't understand his mumbled words. A single tear slipped from Kaiyou's right eye.

She had killed. She was not worthy of love. Itachi did not ….

Shoving her tears away, Kaiyou quickly ran home, and prepared to drown her sorrows in ramen, refusing to be a weak girl who burst into sobs in an alley.

XxOOxX

Please don't hit me! I never promised an easy relationship…

Review please!


	2. Teenage Angst

XxOOxX

A week had passed. One miserably long, miserably lonely, miserably boring, miserably contemplative week had dragged its feet, red Xs slowly filling the days on the calendar. Kaiyou had not been cleared for practicing jutsus by the old hag yet. She was in a lousy mood: her father was feared that he didn't know how to do deal with a teenage female with raging hormones. It never occurred to Minato that it wasn't PMS that had his daughter taking the heads off of her training dummies with senbon, shuriken, and kunai. She was also using the more brutal methods of just kicking the dummies head in.

Kaiyou felt like her heart was being clawed by the kyuubi, being torn into shreds for a fox kit to eat, not even worthy of fulfilling the great demon's dietary needs. Her friends did not know what was going on: Kiba and Akamaru backed away howling; Neji stayed clear—he trusted his eyes enough to avoid a violent female; Shino dropped by but was chased off. It was only when Hinata had finally found a free moment in her busy schedule to come by, that anything began to be even remotely solved.

Being a tough female Kaiyou did not simply break into tears and cry her eyes and her heart out to her only close female friend. No, the once diehard tomboy began to punch a wooden pole, similar to the one Lee had been training on, as tears streamed from her eyes, glistening in the air, and falling to the dirt like drops of rain.

Hinata, healer-hearted as she was, could not bear to see her friend so distressed. As a stifled sob tore through her friend she placed her hands around the smaller girl's wrists. Kaiyou's eyes looked up into almost-white pupils. Breathing deeply Kaiyou stilled the majority of her sobs, and lowered herself swiftly onto the dirt.

She whispered into the dirt. "I tried eating ramen. But it wouldn't wash it away. Nothing works! I can't! I just…I can't forget it. I'm…I killed him. As a monster. He said…I'm not worthy of his love."

Hinata's eyes glinted darkly, an odd phenomenon in such pale eyes. Whoever had said that had been an absolute moron. Stifling her anger she drew the story out of the girl.

"Who said that?"

Kaiyou shook her head, her resolve returning to her. "It doesn't matter. Ita—He's right. I'm a killer. I killed that guy, because he killed my friend."

"We all kill," was Hinata's quiet response.

XxOOxX

Sasuke was annoyed as hell. And it was their entire fault. Itachi just had to mope around the house, secluding himself into his room when he wasn't on duty. He argued with his mother and acted like some sort of burr had been put down his pants. Something was going on with Itachi, and Sasuke wanted it over. He wanted his obnoxiously perfect (if Pocky-obsessed) brother back! In fact he'd been so busy preoccupying himself away from where his brother could find him and use him as a target to unleash his surliness and anger upon, that Sasuke hadn't been seen anywhere apart from Shino's house in the past week.

Shino wasn't sure he was thrilled. His best friend was camping out at his place to avoid his brother. Sure they were friends, but this must stop. Sasuke couldn't avoid his brother forever could he?

And so both Shino and Sasuke were in agreement that this had to stop! The annoyance must end. It was only when, after two days of plotting that Shino absentmindedly mentioned that Kaiyou's temper had also been on edge, that he even pondered a connection. Sure he'd joked about the two having some sort of relationship, but as far as he knew it was as contacts. Sasuke, however, knew more.

He found himself looking at his friend, an expression of interest flickering across his face. Shino noticed the look, and began to wonder what was going through the devious boy's mind. "Do you know when Kaiyou…?"

Shino shook his head—he hadn't thought much of her temper at the time. It was normal for her to be antsy and angry when she was barred from jutsu practice (technically she probably shouldn't have been punching the post either, but only so much compliance could be gotten out of the girl). "Hyuuga-san would know, perhaps," he ventured.

Sasuke nodded. "Yes, let's ask her. At least find out what's up…"

Shino shot a speculative glance at his friend, from behind his trademark shades. "You think Itachi and Kaiyou fought?"

Sasuke shrugged eloquently, as he grabbed a jacket from beside him. "I was teasing him about Kaiyou hugging Gaara, and he seemed interested. That night he comes home angry at the world. I half thought he was going to drink himself into oblivion…"

XxOOxX

Hinata had been spending the last day, since discovering why Kaiyou was so upset talking with her. She had not been able to get Kaiyou to confess the name to her; for a bigmouth she was being surprisingly tight-lipped on that. The girl with bluish hair knew that her feeling heartbroken over a boy was only compounding another issue: her first kill.

Hinata had convinced Kaiyou to talk to her father about it. That hadn't particularly gone well, according to Hinata's standards. For a great ninja Minato Namikaze was a doting father, with no common sense. Since his daughter had little common sense, it seemed to work well enough. Hinata's father was harsh and demanding, though not heartless (though he wasn't sure that Hinata was cut out to be the clan leader, which didn't really bother her that much), but Minato had a completely different approach to dealing with his daughter.

The Fourth Hokage's dealing method was a large amount of ramen, and assuring her that killing didn't make her a horrible person. He told her in no uncertain terms that Kaiyou's mother, Kushina, had been a great ninja—who, yes, killed people, and he had loved her. Killing was sometimes necessary to save lives.

He also told her that he would kill any number of people to keep his little girl (and his village) safe and happy. After that conversation, Kaiyou was relieved a little bit. She was able to stop demolishing half of the training stumps in the area.

But she was still not happy. A melancholy attitude was less natural for Kaiyou than her anger had been. Minato had responded to the situation, after his oh-so-sensitive pep talk by offering to teach her a new jutsu as soon as her arm had healed. This had cheered her, but her arm wasn't cleared yet, and the excitement wore off after realizing that she would have to wait to learn.

Wandering home after a visit with Kaiyou she found herself face-to-face-to-face with Shino and Sasuke, who were just leaving the Hyuuga Complex.

"Hello," she greeted them quietly.

"Ah, Hyuuga-san we were just seeking you. We have some questions you might be able to help us with."

Hinata hesitated for a moment, unsure of what she could offer these two. They were all friends of Kaiyou, but really they'd had sporadic contact in the years that Kaiyou had been gone. She was often busy with her team, and only really spoke to them on occasion.

"About Kaiyou," Sasuke grunted.

Hinata made a swift decision, and indicated for them to follow her back into the Hyuuga complex, bowing politely to any of her family members as she passed. The two boys of Team 7 followed along behind her, as she led them to a study that was set up for informal visits. She had a feeling that they would need the privacy afforded by the study, which was certainly more private than the main room off of the foyer.

Seating herself neatly on a low cushion, she indicated for her guests to do so as well. "Please, ask," she said politely. It would hardly do for the conversation to be overheard by anyone, and be commented upon for the lack of propriety. In her home and elsewhere Hinata was expected to be polite by her father (or more particularly, the clan elders).

Sasuke and Shino shared a glance full of silent communications. Finally Sasuke spoke, "We wondered if you knew why Kaiyou is so angry…?"

XxOOxX

Itachi tugged the mask from his face and set it gently on the table beside his bed, before roughly flinging himself onto the Western style bed, burying his face in his pillow.

Contrary to Sasuke's belief, which yes Itachi was quite aware of, he was not angry at the world. Well not mostly. Sure it was the world that made him fall in love with Unavailable Girl Number One, but it was he who had impulsively broken his vow. It was he who had touched his mouth to hers, tasting of the sweetness that he could not allow himself.

In his head he had some messed up ideas. He somehow believed himself unworthy of her. Yeah, the Hokage would probably agree. Namikaze-sama would probably also never admit that any male was good enough for his precious daughter. Or any female either, if it came to that.

What Itachi felt was messed up was that his determination of staying away from the girl, the tiny, young, girl, was wavering. He woke up every morning with dreams of her, vividly real with how soft her lips had been against his, haunting his mind. He was going crazy! Kaiyou was driving him crazy.

He could avoid her all day long, but not all night. Nor could he allow himself to short-change himself on sleep: the lack of sleep could cause him to be less attentive in his duties, and without a valid reason pertaining to fulfilling those duties it was foolish and naïve. For surely when an ANBU agent decided that it was safe enough to go to work ill-rested, surely then was when an attack would come.

No, Itachi was a man who had been on assassination missions. He was a man who had been revealed to bear the beginnings of chilling inclinations in the therapy he had gone through so many years ago. In truth, occasionally even now he had to report into the psychiatric offices for a check-up.

Itachi had begun to hate his father. His father who had pushed him so hard into being excellent, who had wanted him to be the perfect Uchiha. It had only been the beginnings: but he felt guilty that his father had died, while he harbored the occasional thought of murder. All he wanted was to be allowed to relax on occasion, enjoy a pack of Pocky and roughhouse with his little brother. But even Sasuke had wanted something: training, to be just as good as Itachi.

All he wanted was to be ordinary. Yet he was a shinobi—a killer—and indubitably in love with the one girl he wouldn't even try for. Any other girl would come to him (Itachi had no delusions, he really had an annoying fan club) but this one he would push away, not because she was annoying (well, he reflected, Kaiyou could be annoying, but that was beside the point) but because he wouldn't sully her. The young Jinchuuriki was surrounded by enough blood already.

A fist slammed into his pillow. "Dammit," he growled.

His violation of his vow had made everything worse. Taking it out on his family wasn't going to do any good whatsoever. Maybe if he asked for advice for a friend from his mother…no, the woman was far too astute for that. If he mentioned that the next thing she'd be gushing about would be grandbabies!

XxOOxX

To her credit, Hinata was not going completely gossipy, or yelling like Ino or Sakura would have done. There was, however, an odd glint in her eyes. She was clearly torn between anger, and excitement over whom her best friend was all torn up inside over.

Itachi.

The three had pieced it together. Sasuke said something about Gaara to Itachi. The two must have argued—an argument involving the words "killer" and "don't deserve."

The fact that Itachi was upset did not let him off of the hook completely in Hinata's eyes. They would have to make sure that he fixed the problem that he started. Determination filled her eyes.

"Sasuke-san, would you tell me precisely why your onii-san would find it distasteful to have a relationship with Namikaze-san?"

Sasuke scowled, leaning back against the wall. Shino answered for him. "I think it highly unlikely it has anything to do with her having killed a man. Uchiha-san, is after all, an ANBU."

She nodded. "Ensure he is here at two tomorrow." And then she rose, a fierce glint in her eyes. Both of the boys had the feeling that they should obey. Kaiyou had once mentioned that pulling Hinata out of her own shell had its drawbacks sometimes. Once the girl had learned to stand up against some of her and Kiba's wilder schemes, she had managed to ruin too much fun. When the girl put her mind to it, she was downright fierce.

Had her father seen this behavior out of her more often, he would have no doubts about her being fit to lead the united clan.

Wandering away from the house moments later, it occurred to them that they had not inquired why Itachi was to be at her house. All they had learned was that they should be present as well.

Now they just had to figure out how to get him there.

Perhaps Sasuke should inform his brother that Hyuuga-sama wished to converse with him? But what if—no, Itachi would be at home. His mood lately, he hadn't been going out on his days off, and on Wednesdays he never had guard duty around the village, though he did occasionally take missions that would have him outside of the village in midweek.

XxOOxX

Kaiyou was in a better mood than she had been in for a week and a half. Her arm had been cleared for light chakra usage! Okay, so she wouldn't be doing the rasengan for another few days, but she was allowed to do chakra exercises using her hands, and C-rank jutsus. So basically kawarimi and henge, but hey, at least it was something! She was that much closer to being able to take her mind off of Itachi and put it to use learning that new jutsu her father had promised.

He had been uniquely quiet about what jutsu he would be teaching her. That always meant it was a good one. And now she was on her way to Hinata's—she'd been invited over for the afternoon and lunch.

Between her arm almost being healed completely and dinner at a friend's house (so, okay it wasn't ramen, but it was always nice to visit with Hinata) she was grinning a little bit as she went to Hinata's house.

Kaiyou was quickly welcomed into the house. As always the lunch served to Hinata and her friend was quite good: onigiri with baked salmon and sweet plums. It probably was lacking in the vegetable department, but that didn't bother Kaiyou at all. After a rather subdued lunch (though good, it always felt odd to the girl from such a lively home to sit at a formal dining table) the two retreated to a study. A few healing jutsu scrolls sat on the low desk, and a collection of dark violet cushions lined one wall. Kaiyou plopped herself down, in a negligently graceful manner. Hinata shook her head and took a seat primly.

The two had not been speaking together very long, continuing to catch up on the past three years with minimal contact, when a knock sounded on the light screen door. Hinata rose, and slipped out of the door, closing it behind her. Kaiyou just leaned back against the cushion, her smile faltering for a moment. Everything made her think of Itachi—at least everything in these past three years.

Then the door slid open again and Hinata's voice was softly ringing: "Yes, Uchiha-san. Please go in. I'll leave you to speak."

Itachi came up short as Hinata shut the door to the small study behind him. His eyes scanned the room, and with perhaps a tinge of stoniness on his face he asked, rather rudely: "What are you doing here? Where is Hyuuga-sama?"

Kaiyou snorted angrily. "This is Hinata's study. She just left."

The man stood awkwardly in front of the door. After a moment, he looked at the girl with fiery and golden hair. "I believe that your friend wishes us to speak."

Kaiyou pushed herself to her feet, eyes narrowing angrily. Anger was an easier emotion to deal with than hurt. "Well we already talked didn't we? Or rather YOU kiss ME then act disgusted!"

Itachi's already pale face blanched so that it almost appeared white rather than the pale olive that was his skin tone. "Disgusted," he yelped!

But Kaiyou wasn't listening. She never was the best at listening. "I want to know where you get off saying that I'm disgusting and not worthy of being loved because I killed one man! C'mon haven't you killed a lot! I know what ANBU do, or have you forgotten who I am?"

Itachi broke in bitterly. "How could I forget who you are? The HOKAGE'S DAUGHTER! The one girl who I'm not allowed to love!"

Kaiyou didn't respond, and Itachi suddenly returned to his stoic self, no doubt wishing his words back into his mouth. "What," Kaiyou whispered after a minute's silence. The silence dragged on. "Then you don't think I'm disgusting because I killed that man? Then I'm not without hope?"

A strange feeling, perhaps like a bird fluttering in her chest instead of her heart, stole over Kaiyou. Yet Itachi still didn't respond, so she spoke again. "Am I always going to be the one to speak then? Do you love me too?"

Kaiyou had somehow come to stand close to him, looking into his black eyes. A flash of irritation stole through her: never say a Namikaze was patient. If he wouldn't answer, then she'd find out the hard way!

Kaiyou reached up and slapped him. His head turned on his neck an inch before he caught himself. He blinked. "What was that for?" he growled out.

"For not answering," she snarled back. "You don't even have the decency to answer when I ask you straight out!"

Itachi wished he weren't in this situation. He didn't know how to answer. Every fangirl who asked if he loved them, if they were beautiful, he had a glib answer for them, to get them to leave him alone. Not this time. He loved Kaiyou. But he didn't feel like he should. The words spilled out of him. "I—yes—but, I shouldn't, I—"

The words didn't get any farther out of his mouth. A soft pair of pink lips touched his for just a moment. Two moments passed and his hand was reaching out, touching a strand of her hair that fell over her tanned skin in his dreams—

He yanked himself back. "Your father will kill me," he said quietly, eyes burning as he looked at the fiery, petite young woman before him.

"I'll make him get used to it slowly. Or else he'll chain me into my room. He thinks he can keep me from growing up forever." Kaiyou smiled softly for a moment, then let her glare return. She hit him again as a thought occurred to her.

"What sort of idiot are you!? Why the hell would you let my Dad keep us apart! Did you WANT me to be MISERABLE?! And saying that killing made a person undeserving of love! GRR!"

Hinata, standing re-entered the room a moment later, to discover that Itachi was trying to calm her down, to apologize. Clearly the two loved each other—but no relationship between them would ever be tame. In fact they were a great deal like good friends in their behavior. For now.

Perhaps things would look up for Konoha. Kaiyou was back, and happy. It had been lonely while she was gone.

XxOOxX

And...that is where my muse dried up. I love ItachixFemNaru but...Kaiyou didn't agree with me!


End file.
